It's getting stranger

 

June 16, 2023

Self, I said, you need to step back from this manuscript for a couple of days. 

There comes a time when a writer needs to take a mental break. Now, I'm sure a lot of people will nay-say that, but this writer has found it to be true. I no longer espouse the "rule" of write something every day. I try to be a bit kinder to myself. I'm more of a believer that sometimes it's necessary to be about the business of writing beyond the manuscript. 

Earlier this week I visited the Facebook groups and did a bit of promo and my blog stats exploded. Too bad sales didn't follow. People in Singapore speak and read English, right? 

Eight THOUSAND hits from Singapore in one day. I don't know if I should laugh or contact Blogger. 

    _*_*_*_*_*_*_

 KC Kendricks
http://www.kckendricks.com

My home on the web- Between the Keys: 

http://kckendricks.blogspot.com

Visit my bookshelf at: 

https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/the-bookshelf-of-kc-kendricks-and-rayne_3.html

Social media links:

Life through the eyes of my black Lab, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com

My country life at The Hideaway/Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com

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KC Kendricks, Between the Keys, contemporary gay romance, m/m romance, LGBT gay, a writer's life, Blogger, social media, Facebook, finance, social commentary

Running the numbers

April 2, 2019

We Americans like numbers. Everything is all about the numbers, even the money. Big numbers are good, and small numbers are bad. Hmm. Not always. 

This morning I checked in with my retirement countdowns. Folks, it's getting scary. Having already passed the first number, that being December 31, 2018, I'm working on the second. That rolls up in sixty days. 

How did I choose the numbers/dates? The first one wasn't arbitrary. It was the earliest day I could financially afford to retire. The numbers dictated 12/31/18. The problem with that one was the size of my slush fund. As I contemplated depleting that fund of several thousand dollars over the course of five months, I started to wheeze. Seriously. Going from a saver to a spender might kill me.  

The picture is for age sixty-two. A lot of Americans retire at sixty-two. I could be one of them if I choose to be. After this one, the next number is for the twenty-year mark at my current job. That is another 456 days in the future. Age sixty-five? That's pushing twelve hundred days or over 3 years. That one seems a bit daunting. Or is it depressing? 

Maybe it's time to break a rule I've held fast and firm to since 2003. With very few exceptions I've not written prose while at the day job office. But things change. 

Now don't get excited. I work in a private 501(c)3. We do not get government money so I'm not wasting taxpayer dollars. But as this trend has developed, along with a few others, I question whether or not I need to be at the day job forty hours a week. Going to a four-day week would solve a lot of problems for me. It would also be more cost effective for my employer.

All these numbers staring me in the face are distracting. I can't shake them off. I can't ignore them. I'd like to make peace with them but so far I've failed that endeavor. Seeing the days click off, seeing the numbers shrink, brings up that natural fear of change. It's the complete opposite of what I expected. I expected to be gleeful and chomping at the bit to attain my freedom. 

I should have known. Nothing in my life has ever gone as planned. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
kckendricks.blogspot.com
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The danger of emotion

May 20, 2018

Our lives are being overshadowed by the lunatic fringe. 

Is it politically correct to call some of the people the organized media creates reports about "lunatics"? Probably not but I don't much care at this juncture. There's a feeding frenzy of unhealthy emotion and questionable mental health happening in the mainstream. It's frightening. 

The tragedy of others fills social media. People become unhinged and spew forth vitriolic emotion. They become a siphon of some celebrity's stated opinion. It has become all too real for them. Too few are able, or perhaps willing, to set aside emotion long enough to examine the root cause. 

There is a crisis of mental health in the world today. 

We spend our days listening to the lunatic fringe call everyone who doesn't agree with them racist, sexist, absurdist, obstructionist, abortionist, antagonist, capitalist, socialist, communist, fascist, bigamist, conformist, non-conformist, leftist, conservativist, cultist, diversionist, ideologist - the ist list goes on forever. If we don't agree with someone, we're labeled an IST of some sort. 

Worse than that, we're labeled a HATER and that hurts. But that's the point - to cause us pain. To elicit a strong emotional response which in turn causes us to say something "they" can latch on to and use against us to manipulate our thoughts and actions. Spending one's waking hours trying to control other people is not healthy behavior. People who have good mental health and who can control their emotions do not harm others unless in self-defense. 

It's time to spend less time and money on labeling and more time and money on solving. And to do that we need to stop. Stop and think. Speak responsibly. Act responsibly. Teach responsibly. Love responsibly. Guide responsibly. Nurture responsibly. 

It's time to set fear aside, not pass it on. It's time to address the root of the problem.

KC Kendricks

Taxes Smaxes

December 4, 2017

I’m a bit befuddled by some of what I’m reading these days about tax reform. Specifically, the numbers don’t add up when I read someone making ten times what I make pays less tax. Based on the screaming over tax reform, someone had better go tell my parents they’ve been overpaying their taxes for the last twenty-four years. According to the screamers, my parents pay less than me, and that is not true.

Here’s a close example of the breakdown for us.

Consider the spousal unit and I rake in $80,000 a year. That puts us in the middle of the middle class. 

Using the married filing jointly rates, tax collected from us is $1,865 on the first $18,650.

From $18,651 to $75,900 another $8,587.50 is collected. (That’s 15% by the way.)

Into the next bracket, the 25% bracket, from $75,901 to $80,000 another $1,025 is taken out of my pocket.

Total collected from us: $11,477.50

Consider my parents rake in $144,000 a year. That puts them above being considered middle class. Using the married filing jointly tax rates, the IRS takes from them:

$1,865 on the first $18,650.

Okay. So this is equal to anyone else making up to $18,650. I get it. Equality is good.

They, too, have a 15% tax responsibility of $8,587.50 for income between $19,650 and $75.900. All things are still equal.

Between $75,901 and $144,000 they pay at 25% for a total of $2,275.

Their tax bill is $12,727.50.

Okay! They make more than me so they are responsible for more than me.  

My question is, where did they get a tax break I didn’t get?

Since we separate church and state in the attempt to elevate Caesar, a real tax reform would be a flat 10% rate and get rid of all the deductions.

We’d be responsible for $8,000.

They’d be responsible for $14,400.

Make $1,000,000 and be responsible for $100,000.

Make $10,000,000 and be responsible for $1,000,000.

According to the IRS, in 2010 (I know it was long, long ago) if you made $1,000,000 your average effective tax rate was 20.4%, which means your tax bill was $204,000. The effective tax rate is your average rate across all brackets. 

If you earned between $50,000 and $100,000 your effective tax rate was 7.7% and you are at $7,700 or less.

If you earned $30,000 to $50,000 your effective tax rate was 4.8% and you are at $2,400 or less.

I realize this is unpopular to admit, but my brain simply does not see any of the math as proving the rich are paying less in taxes, especially when the effective tax rate stated by the IRS shows high earners pay more. This requires more thought. Maybe I can fall in line with the popular opinion and maybe I can't. 

And a side note to the IRS - just think of the money you could get from us authors if you'd stop pirates from stealing our work. I'd gladly pay taxes on those sales if I could get them. 

KC Kendricks